David Bowie (born on 8 January 1947) is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s. He is known for his distinctive voice and the intellectual depth and eclecticism of his work. (Wikipedia Notes) . I hope you enjoy this tutorial, "How to Draw David Bowie." Please fav, show your love, and comment. Thank you all. Peace and love to you.

How to Draw David Bowie

STEP 1.

Draw the oval lightly with a No.2 or HB pencil. Make sure you draw it as seen in the picture.

STEP 2.

Now draw in the bisecting red line to balance his facial features.

STEP 3.

Sketch lightly the crescent red lines for hair line and head mass.

STEP 4.

You can draw in the lines a. for intended eyebrows, b. for eyes, c. for nose, d. and for mouth.

STEP 5.

Now draw David's bangs, eye patch and eye.

STEP 6.

Observe where David's features appear in relation to the guidelines. Draw in his nose and mouth.

STEP 7.

Watch closely how his beard, cheeks, jawline, and chin relate to the guidelines. As you draw, you will have more accuracy.

STEP 8.

When you sketch in his hair, add those straight jagged lines and curls. Try staying close to the lines that represent the direction & curls of his hair. This will help as you shade it in. Also add in the small portion of his ear.

STEP 9.

Now draw in his collar. If you haven't already, you can erase your guidelines.

STEP 10.

I made this line drawing especially for you if you don't want to do the pencil shading and blending part. Otherwise, let us continue to the pencil drawing part.

STEP 11.

Here is the outline done with a 0.7mm mechanical pencil. Look closely and see if your lines look something like this. You can erase if certain areas like the eyes or nose don't line up. Be patient with this, it's not as complicated as you may think. As you do more pictures, this will come easier to you.

STEP 12.

Before we go any further, I want to mention some tools I used, which is the famous white acrylic (this time white opaque watercolor) and also sandpaper. Right before I shaded, I used 180-grit sandpaper and rubbed over David's cheek area (to give that bumpy shaven look) with a clean blending stump. You will see what I mean in the upcoming steps. But before that, I want to show you some great uses of a pencil.

STEP 13.

The picture that goes with this step shows two different ways to hold your pencil to acquire certain effects. OVERHAND: Holding a sharpened pencil in normal writing form with fingers in the middle or near the lead gives you great control and thin/detailed strokes. UNDERHAND: Holding the pencil at a 45 degrees or near level to the table with end of pencil under your palm with pencil on the flat side, gives you large shading coverage. With the No.2 pencil, you have the exposed lead side to shade with. But for a wider swath, use that Cretacolor Monolith graphite pencil with no wood casing. The whole sharpened portion is all lead, like in the step's picture. Practice the toning values to help you with control.

STEP 14.

PENCIL STROKES & TONE, SHADING, TEXTURE -- For your convenience, I have inserted this step with different pencils, strokes to use. And you can study the shapes that make up this drawing universe, along with tone, shading, and texture.

STEP 15.

The picture here is a great exercise for value shading. I've got a little secret tip for you to make things easier. You can download this to your desktop. First click on the picture to have access to full size. By right clicking on your mouse, you can select "Save Image As." It should save to your desktop.

STEP 16.

After printing out a number of the above template, practice shading in the values like this picture. You become familiar with this shading technique that gives you more control and confidence.

STEP 17.

Best thing you can do when drawing hair is to establish the general shape then work in the main strands of hair by holding your pencil at a 45 degree angle for stroking and coverage. Then, as in the third picture, you can work in more details. But here's a TIP! Don't draw a straight line for the hairline. Do tiny strokes to represent beginning of hair at its root. Look at real people and see their hairline isn't a straight line. Practice and your picture will look more realistic.

STEP 18.

This is the first start with the pastel application. If you do the whole picture in a pencil sketch, this is where you would sketch in small circles or lines to shade the areas. It would take hours upon hours to cover all that area with a pencil. I chose to shade with pastels. In a few strokes I've got area coverage. Applied light to medium gray to his face. For his hair, eye patch, and neck, I applied black, dark and medium gray. While I stroked his hair, I left blank parts for the hair shine. Looks like a mess, but that's how a some beginning projects will appear. Keep patience with you and keep applying those layers of whites, grays & blacks. You'll have a great outcome.

STEP 19.

I added some more dark gray and black to his hair. Applied some dark gray pastel with my blending stump to his eyes and black to form his eye patch. What's interesting is I haven't used a pencil yet during this stage. I took a blending stump (since it won't leave lines and will cover a larger areas like her hair strands, the side of her face and neck) and shaded laying the stump tapered part flat (like a pencil). Then I took its point and “drew” with its pointed edge in the smaller areas (eyes, pupils, lips, and neck. To form a more realistic jaw and cheek area, I put my 180-grit sandpaper underneath for rough texture. I will be using a pencil soon for darkening and very refined areas. TONE: Remember the white of her eyes are slightly shaded. I also took the kneaded eraser to make more light hair strands, nose, lip shine, and round "dots" for that bumpy shaven look. Then I sprayed with "Krylon Workable Fixatif" to adhere the pencil & pastel to the paper for a non-smudging and workable surface.

STEP 20.

Here I used my 9B graphite pencil to darken between his hair strands and added more detail with my 7mm mechanical pencil. Then I took my blending stump to "draw" in more lines, add more shading to his hair, eyebrows, and side of face. I needed to darken his upper lip as well. I "kneaded" to give a shine on his nose, too.

STEP 21.

I first applied the 9B graphite crayon to the background and smoothed it with my blending stump.TIP: To balance the darkness I went over his eye shadow and dark areas in his hair.

STEP 22.

I have to say this...OH, I'M GLAD I'M FINISHED... how about you? This was one heck of a drawing experience. I also took the pure white opaque watercolor and added highlights to his hair strands, under his nose, on the side of his face (for reflective lighting). TIP: If you find the white opaque stands out too harshly, then blend it with some gray from your picture (finger) or blending stump. I am totally satisfied. And I hope you are too with your creation. To help out with specific areas of highlights, tone, texture, etc., the next two following steps will show you.

STEP 23.

Without highlights, your picture would have a flat appearance. Click on this picture to learn how to make your own picture POP out!

STEP 24.

Click on this picture to see how Tone, Shading, Texture, and Reflective Light affects David Bowie, who is a genius musician, actor, record producer and arranger! I am closing out now. But you all have been wonderful and it has been a great pleasure to do this tutorial with you. Please fav, comment, and show you love here. And I will definitely reply back soon or eventually. Love, peace, happiness, success, and more beautiful days to ya! *hug* *blowkiss*

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